Lexicon

G3498 - nekros

Strong's: G3498 · BLB lookup Pronunciation: nek-ros' Part of speech: adjective; frequently used substantively (hoi nekroi, "the dead") Hebrew equivalent (LXX): מֵת (met); the broader Hebrew vocabulary for death includes H4194 - mavet, the noun "death". NT occurrences: 128, concentrated in Acts (resurrection preaching), Romans, 1 Corinthians (esp. 15), Ephesians, Colossians, Hebrews, Revelation.

Semantic range (Thayer / BDAG)

Dead (literal), physically dead; corpse / cadaver. The standard medical-physical sense.
Subject to death / mortal, possessing the property of mortality (Heb 6:1; 9:14, "dead works").
Dead in trespasses and sins (figurative-spiritual), the Pauline sense; humans in their fallen state are spiritually dead, alienated from the life of God, incapable of producing life-in-God on their own resources (Eph 2:1, 5; Col 2:13). The Augustinian doctrine of total depravity rests on this lexical-conceptual base.
Dead to (something), relational severance, Paul's we died to idiom: dead to sin (Rom 6:2, 11), dead to the Law (Rom 7:4; Gal 2:19), dead to the world (Col 3:3).

Theological force, the resurrection-axis word

Nekros is the central pivot-term of NT resurrection-Christology and resurrection-soteriology. It is the word over which the theological action turns, Christ rises ek nekrōn ("from among the dead"); believers are raised with Him.

The kerygmatic formula. The earliest Christian preaching has a fixed two-part shape: (a) Christ died, (b) Christ rose from the dead (ek nekrōn). The 1 Cor 15:3-7 creed (cf. Pre-Pauline Creeds and 1 Corinthians 15.3-8), datable to within ~5 years of the resurrection, uses the formula in its most condensed form: "Christ died for our sins... He was raised on the third day." The raised-from-the-dead idiom is irreducibly nekros-shaped.

The Pauline soteriological extension. Paul applies the resurrection-vocabulary to the believer's spiritual condition with sustained intensity:

Romans 6:1-11, believers were "buried with Him through baptism into death... so we too might walk in newness of life... considering yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus"
Ephesians 2:1-6, "you were dead in your trespasses and sins... but God... made us alive together with Christ... raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him"
Colossians 2:13, "when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him"

The pattern is consistent: humans are nekros in their natural state; God's action in Christ moves them from nekros to zōē (life). The whole soteriological architecture is resurrection-shaped, and the resurrection from nekrōn of Christ is the ground-and-pattern of the believer's resurrection from spiritual nekros.

The eschatological resurrection. The resurrection of the dead (anastasis nekrōn, cf. G0386 - anastasis) is the eschatological consummation. 1 Cor 15 mounts the most extensive NT defense of bodily resurrection on the basis of Christ's resurrection: "if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless... if from the dead (ek nekrōn) Christ has not been raised, then we are of all men most to be pitied." The believer's hope of bodily resurrection rests on the nekros-defeating prior fact of Christ's resurrection.

Apologetic load. Nekros carries the weight of the central Christian historical claim: a man named Jesus was dead (literally, irreversibly, by Roman crucifixion) and was raised from the dead (literally, bodily, with eyewitness attestation). Every variant of "the resurrection didn't happen", swoon-theory, hallucination-theory, conspiracy-theory, mythologization, has to negotiate the nekros status: was Jesus actually dead? Did He actually emerge from death? The nekros word is what makes the resurrection a falsifiable historical claim rather than a metaphor.

Notable verses

The resurrection of Christ (kerygmatic)

1 Corinthians 15.3-8, "Christ died for our sins... He was raised on the third day"
1 Corinthians 15:12-20, "if from the dead Christ has not been raised"; "now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who are asleep"
Romans 1.4, "declared to be the Son of God with power... by the resurrection from the dead (ex anastaseōs nekrōn)"
Romans 4:24, "Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead"
Romans 6.9, "Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again"
Romans 10.9, "if you confess... and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead"
Acts 2.24, "God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death"
Acts 3.15, "you put to death the Prince of life, the one whom God raised from the dead"
Acts 4:10, "by the name of Jesus Christ... whom God raised from the dead"
Acts 17:31, "He has furnished proof... by raising Him from the dead"

The resurrection of believers

1 Corinthians 15.42-44, "so also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body"
1 Corinthians 15:51-52, "we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed"
1 Thessalonians 4:16, "the dead in Christ will rise first"
Revelation 20:5, 12-13, the resurrection-of-the-dead at the great white throne

Spiritual death / regeneration

Ephesians 2:1-6, "you were dead in your trespasses and sins... made us alive together with Christ"
Colossians 2:13, "when you were dead in your transgressions... He made you alive together with Him"
Romans 6:11, "consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus"
John 5:24-25, "the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live"
Luke 15:24, 32, the prodigal son: "this son of mine was dead and has come to life"

Dead works / dead faith

Hebrews 6:1; Hebrews 9.14, "dead works"
James 2:17, 26, "faith without works is dead"

Christ's authority over the dead

John 11.25, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies"
John 11:43-44, Lazarus called from the tomb
Revelation 1.18, "I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore... I have the keys of death and of Hades"

Patristic / scholarly note

The early Christian preaching (cf. C.H. Dodd, The Apostolic Preaching and Its Developments, 1936) is shaped around the nekros / egeiro pair. The kerygmatic formulas in Acts (esp. Peter's Pentecost sermon, Acts 2; the Cornelius episode, Acts 10:34-43) all center on Iēsoun ho theos ēgeiren ek nekrōn ("Jesus, whom God raised from the dead"). This is the minimum content of the apostolic message, and nekros is the load-bearing word.

Athanasius (De Incarnatione 26-32) develops the resurrection-from-the-dead logic into a full Christology: God's victory over death is the consummating sign of His incarnational mission. Cyril of Alexandria (On the Unity of Christ), Christ's death-and-resurrection as the one act in which the Two Natures meet most decisively. Augustine (Sermons; Enchiridion), develops the spiritually-dead-made-alive tradition from Eph 2 / Col 2 / Rom 6.

In modern Reformed theology, John Murray (Redemption Accomplished and Applied, 1955) gives the classic treatment of nekros / zōopoieō (made alive) in the ordo salutis, regeneration as the resurrection of the spiritually dead, monergistic by necessity (the dead cannot raise themselves). Anthony Hoekema (Saved by Grace, 1989) and Sinclair Ferguson (The Christian Life, 1981) follow.

In resurrection apologetics, N.T. Wright (The Resurrection of the Son of God, 2003) is the magisterial treatment, arguing the bodily-resurrection-from-the-dead claim is irreducible, first-century Jews would not have invented the nekros-overcome category as metaphor; the anastasis nekrōn claim is historically the only adequate explanation of the apostolic-Christian movement. Gary Habermas + Mike Licona, The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus (2004), develops the same line as a "minimal facts" argument.

Verses in this codex

See Obsidian's backlinks pane for every verse page linking here. Central anchors: 1 Corinthians 15.3-8, Romans 6:1-11, Romans 10.9, Ephesians 2:1-6, John 11.25, Acts 2.24, Revelation 1.18.